Presentation day

Civil Liberties and computer monitoring

Pretzi presentation http://prezi.com/ycut3sei7a-7/computer-monitoring-and-civil-liberties-1/

The presentation went well today and we had lots of fun putting everything together.I have photos of the T-Shirts and I must up-load them. Below is my final though

For Aristotle and Socrates there is nothing more important than the task of cultivating and practicing excellence as a human being, meaning as a human being engaged with making ethical and political judgments and choices. In particular, if we subordinate our cultivation of excellence as ethical and political beings to any other activity e.g. the pursuit of wealth or power – we thereby putt our capacity for reason and ethical judgment at risk.

Socrates and Arastotle argue that if we allow our interests in wealth and power to persuade us to judge and act against our reason and better judgment, we therby harm these capacities (just as we would harm a race horse, to use Socrates’ analogy, by using it as a plow-horse instead.

They both believe that reaching your maximum potential and being happy is still possible with moderate amount of Power and wealth. But the contrast danger is to let out interests in wealth and power overshadow our pursuit of excellence as ethical and political beings – and thereby, to paraphrase Jesus for centries later, to gain the whole world but to lose our souls.

Is it really worth it???

Aristotle

Plato taught Aristotle and Socrates taught Plato  

Both argued that no one knowingly does evil, Socrates believed that if someone knows what the right thing to do is, then they are going to do it….If they don’t do it, The evil person then is simply ignorant or mistaken about what the right thing to do is.

………………........Me……………………….

Bad………………………………………Good

Good Plato said is a property that all good things have n common. He also believed this was eternal, what was then is the same for now, Then same for bad. Socrates believed that people always naturally want to do the good, but because of ignorance aim at the bad.

Case study 

Worst Cereal Killer, usually what they say is, what they were doing is something what they would interpret of being Good. Helping the person, freeing them, perhaps thinking that they were evil, perhaps they deserved to die,

Very rare that they say yes, it was a terrible action, but I did it anyway. I.e. they generally aimed at the bad, but usually people tell themselves a story and they are the good guys in the story,

They are simply ignorant about the real truth about the matter is in this case, and they have mistakenly identified something that is good which is not. simply got it backwards. They don’t properly identify with the thing which is Good.

………………………………………………………………………………………

Aristotle denies that this is true. He believes that there are case where people know what the right thing to do is, but simply don’t do it.

Case Study

Persons wallet, with 100Euro, persons name and address, but you choose to keep it… even a tax return, so you know they don’t have a lot of money. You say, ah gee, I know I have to give it back, but I don’t for what ever reason, you keep it for the new video game. I know the right thing to do is, but, hey, I not going to do it….

If there are case like this, then Socrates and Plato’s theory fail, they can’t be right…   

The lesson for Aristotle is, from these kinds of cases, person knows the right thing to do is, but fails to do it, well the lesson for Aristotle is, being a good person is, not about knowing something, but performing the right actions. 

More on Aristotle

Virtue ethics begins with the sensibility that we ought to do as human beings is, first of all, to become excellent human beings. Becoming excellent human being, more precisely, means to develop and fulfill our most important capacities as human beings.

If our goal as human beings is to achieve happiness, then it is equally important that we develop what Aristotle (and, subsequently, Kant) identified as practical reason. 

Such practical reason involves first of all our ability – given our best knowledge of reality and thus of our possible choices and actions – to make the sorts of analyses and ethical judgments required for us to do “The right thing” both for ourselves as individuals (the ethical Aristotle) and for our larger communities (for Aristotle, the political)

As we have seen, these sorts of ethical decision-making further require what Socrates and Aristotle term Phronesis, a practical judgment that is able to discern that right choice (or, some-times, choices) among the possibilities before us.

And learning from mistakes means, as Aristotle emphasized, that our developing these capacities of ethical judgment and analyse, and of reason more broadly, is an on-going task: just as the ethlet or physician must constantly practice if s/he is to maintain, much less improve, his or her abilities, so we as human beings must likewise cultivate in a conscious and on-going way our rational abilities, including our use of Phronesis.

Week 14 Semester 2

This video is part of a series that I am posting as a blog about my weekly experience of doing a masters in Interactive Media and Design at the University of Limerick.

What is Aristotle's perspective

To analyse the video that shows how the benefits of computering monitoring can help defeat crime these are the points that Aristotle would look at,

Aristotle virtue ethics is interested in the question of how you become a good person.What would a good person be doing?Good actions.What’s a good action?Good actions are defined in terms of what a good person would do.Knowing what makes a person good and then seeing what kinds of actions the good or virtuous people perform.What are virtues? Virtues are character traits, like honesty, generosity, chastely, bravery, courage etc.A person is good when they have virtues.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

Nico ma che an Ethics asked about the ‘Good’ which was the aim of every action and about what could constitute a ‘final good’ Aristotelian view is that the highest good for man was eu daimonia, which latterly means having a good spirit, but could be translated as happiness.He saw it as a state in which a person was fulfilling his or her potential and natural function. It expressed a form of human excellence of virtue.This tied in with his general view that everything had a ‘final cause’: a goal and a purpose to which it moves. If you understand the final cause of something, you understand its fundamental essence, which finds expression in that goal.If a knife had a soul, Aristotle argued, that is what it is there to do. What then is the essence of human kind? What is it there to do? What is it’s goal?

Final bits of filming

Today we finished the last two movies. One shows how the support of GPS tracking, and how it can help rescue a person if in a kidnapped position, and finally the last movie shows a possible outcome for the future of computer monitoring. As soon as the movies are edited they will be up-loaded to you tube and I will post a link to them.

Further developments for ethics presentation

In this presentation for Monday as I mentioned yesterday, we are using four philosophers to analyse the four movies that we are shooting. The first movie is based on CCTV and the beneficial factors that it's presence has when present in an environment. The movie we shot was done in a local corner street shop.We got permission to shoot a 10min movie where a person enter the store and shops lifts a few items and makes a run for it. The second movie was about a person who is arrested before he boards a flight because of his internet activity. In both of these videos we explore the civil liberties concerned with computer monitoring in both of these cases. 

Today's filming fun

What a day I had, me, Pauline, Stephen and Daisy are in a group for Joe's Ethics class and we are doing a presentation next week on Civil Liberties and Computer Monitoring. So we are creating four videos were we all act in them and then for the presentation, we analyse them using the different theories we have been learning in class. I'm looking forward to putting the videos up on the blog. We had great fun shooting the scenes today, and a great deal of improvising through out them all, and we had a fantastic time. Making movies is a great way to portray a point and to use in a presentation, and tomorrow we have to shoot another two short movies for the final part. I pray that it will be like today lots of success and lots of fun. 

Building the prototype for Hunt Museum

Building the prototype from scratch. Starting with a sheet of wood and then with patients, slowly watch the beauty unfold as your prototype comes together.  

Week 13 Semester 2

This video is part of a series that I am posting as a blog about my weekly experience of doing a masters in Interactive Media and Design at the University of Limerick.

Final coat of Paint

The major thing me and Conor done today was give the frog bin and good coat of paint. It is looking so well, I'm actually surprised how well we have done. The hinge solution has been problematic, but finally it is solved. We will test the little bit of engineering that we done some day soon, and it will work a treat, please God. When I get a photo of the bin, I will post it. Just fantastic it is : ) 

Things we know...

Today I spent the most of the day re-shaping the code for the interactive bin. I have added two new button states to enable the bin and make it safer to use. This project itself could be fit for a final year project. Next week we have a presentation to finalize our essays to polish for submission, so I think we won't get prototyping next week, but could look towards doing this the following week, and we would be under less pressure. 

Just a though, this year has went so fast. We are almost finished. Classes are ending, and we enter into study week. The class battles on, completing work and meeting deadlines, what a bunch we are, Imedia 2012 has been an experience and I feel privileged to have shared my time, challenges and joys with this class. Just a little thank you as we slowly break up and head off to do our FYP's. All the best, good luck and thank you : ) 

Presentation today

Today I presented my presentation about my current research towards developing my FYP (final year project)

This thesis that I am writing explores the implementation of novel interactive technology to support the domain of art therapy and rehabilitation through Art. The focus of the research will centre on how art therapy and its augmentation through interactive technologies can support the therapeutic process in which a client goes through when creating art. The aim, using the findings from ethnographic research, is to explore how different client’s therapeutic process could be potentially exhibited within an exhibition with the support of interactive technology to enhance their overall welling being, and mental health.

The presentation went well and now I'm focusing on writing the first two chapters of my thesis, which is almost complete. 

Hunt Museum

This piece is part of an interactive project at the University of Limerick.

Prototype for Interactive table

This is a miniature version of how I will approach making an interactive table. Th aluminium L bracket will be used to mount the LED's and to support the acrylic.

Week 12 Semester 2

This video is part of a series that I am posting as a blog about my weekly experience of doing a masters in Interactive Media and Design at the University of Limerick.

How taking art to the public eye can be healing

I came across an article on the British association of art therapist website and I found this to be very moving. The link to the article can been seen here, http://www.baat.org/edp_article.pdf#search="exhibition"

Jackie explained that one reason they decided to hold the exhibition in the Forum is that it is a very public place. People going about their day-to-day lives might suddenly come across the paintings in the same way that women simply going about their lives can be confronted by a diagnosis of cancer. “There is lots of colour. They  are not all full of doom and gloom. They look fantastic, really impressive,” said Jackie. “These women have agreed to put their images on display, anonymously, and show something very private to the world. It felt really unsatisfactory that it would just end without anyone really being aware of what had happened. The women wanted to tell people how much they had got from the group. We want to go out with a bang, not a whimper!”

The art therapy group ran for more than three years, funded through charitable donations for women with

breast and gynaecological cancers, and led by Jackie and fellow art therapist.

This really shows you the healing power that work done by artist and presented in an exhibition can have a huge impact and help to support the healing process. 

British association of Art therapists

The following link  http://www.baat.org/searchpublic/search.php?zoom_query=exhibition will re-direct you to a webpage which will list a series of PDFs and articles relating to the relevance of creating exhibitions from patients work and how this is an essential element for the path of recovery. It also includes the article I posted recently Val Huet's opinion on how relevant and important creating exhibitions from clients work.

Art therapy in Australia

I came across this link, it is part of Australia's response to helping those with mental health issues, using art therapy. One of the key strategies they use is promoting solo and group exhibitions. 

Government of Western Australia, Department of Health 

Art therapy for mental health recovery 

CECAT events and exhibitions

CECAT hosts several annual group and solo art exhibitions through out the year open to the general public:

• Annual Schizophrenia Awareness Week art exhibition in May
• Annual Mental Health Week art exhibition in October
• Annual Sale and art exhibition at the end of the year
• Solo artists and group exhibitions throughout the year

All exhibitions are open to the public for viewing, Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm. Many works are for sale at very affordable prices. Call to view or otherwise drop by during these times to view an exhibition. Most exhibitions are open for 2-4 weeks.

Today, CECAT continues to serve both inpatients and community participants, utilising the open studio for arts exploration and self-development, art therapy, consultation to other services and art education classes, all aimed towards the therapeutic recovery and well-being of participating participants.

CECAT continues to support several annual events – Schizophrenia Awareness Week and Mental Health Week with exhibitions on site.  We also host many other exhibitions through out the year, both group and solo ones, showcasing participants art works. 

What Are The Benefits of Art Therapy?

The Scope of Art Therapy

Often art exhibitions showcase works that run quite deep within the psyche of the human creator. Art therapy uses this creative process to help give the individual relief from the emotional stress and conflicts. The influence of art has not been felt only in emotional healing but also in physical healing and fulfillment. Many hospitals have included art therapy as a means of alleviating the physical stress of the harsh symptoms and hastening the healing process.

Though not all are gifted with the skills to be a master painter or sculptor, everyone has the creative ability. This creative process can improve recovery and communication between the patient and therapist. All benefits of art therapy lie in this concept.

Read more at,  'What Are The Benefits of Art Therapy?'

The healing powers of art therapy A new exhibition showcases work created by clients during art therapy sessions.

The Telegraph article can be read from this link, The healing powers of art therapy. What is important to my research is the statement which Val Huct gave. Bellow I have copied the three paragraphs which again underpins the direction in which I am heading in my work.  

"It is accepted that taking part in art therapy is usually beneficial for the client, and showing these works to the public is certainly good for raising awareness and understanding. So perhaps the only remaining question is whether exhibiting these artworks is good for the clients.

All clients must give their consent before their work is shown, but it could be argued that the very knowledge that the work may be exhibited changes the creation of it. If the purpose of art therapy is the process of making, rather than showing the final piece, couldn't it be said that exhibitions like the The Healing Mind distort it?

Val Huet says she understands such concerns, but doesn't feel that exhibiting the work has an adverse affect on the clients, because they were only offered the opportunity to exhibit the work after it had been created. In fact, she says that showing the work is good for the clients: "It gives them a feeling of empowerment as they are being treated as artists doing something, rather than patients having something done to them.It is accepted that taking part in art therapy is usually beneficial for the client, and showing these works to the public is certainly good for raising awareness and understanding. So perhaps the only remaining question is whether exhibiting these artworks is good for the clients.

All clients must give their consent before their work is shown, but it could be argued that the very knowledge that the work may be exhibited changes the creation of it. If the purpose of art therapy is the process of making, rather than showing the final piece, couldn't it be said that exhibitions like the The Healing Mind distort it?

Val Huet says she understands such concerns, but doesn't feel that exhibiting the work has an adverse affect on the clients, because they were only offered the opportunity to exhibit the work after it had been created. In fact, she says that showing the work is good for the clients: "It gives them a feeling of empowerment as they are being treated as artists doing something, rather than patients having something done to them.

Week 11 Semester 2

This video is part of a series that I am posting as a blog about my weekly experience of doing a masters in Interactive Media and Design at the University of Limerick.

CASE STUDY: The role of art therapy as a potential space for the processing of psychological and physical experience following stroke

The Art Therapy (aka Art Psychotherapy) Profession is State Registered by the Health Professions

Council.  

Art Therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which art and image-making play a central role within the

therapeutic relationship. In the three-way process between person, image and therapist the art media

acts as the primary form of communication; the person and the image-making process (rather than the

product) being most important.  ‘The overall aim of art therapy is to enable a client to change and grow

at a personal level through the use of art materials in a safe and facilitating environment’. (British

Association of Art Therapists)

For me, one of the key elements to come from this paper is what I have mentioned above. This idea that art therapy is a three-way  process between person, image and therapist. The art media acts as the primary form of communication; the person and the image-making process (rather than the product) being most important. In many ways this statement underpins my motivation to choose the line of study that I am doing. It has been evident overt the past weeks that in my weekly art meetings that each person communicates in their own way, and they do this through different tools and media, but most important, it's this process to them which is important and not the end result.

To read the full document you can excess the link here at, CASE STUDY:  The role of art therapy as a potential space for the processing of  psychological and physical experience following stroke

ePAD: Engaging Platform for Art Development

This paper discuss the benefits of using touchscreen interfaces to encourage older people in the art therapy process. Although my research is going beyond this, it is still interesting to understand the benefits of using touchscreen and there positive influence on a user. The full paper can be read hear at,  ePAD: Engaging Platform for Art Development

Another publication that I came across Design and Prototype of a Device to Engage Cognitively

Disabled Older Adults in Visual Artwork is also a good paper that explains the benefits of using touchscreen technology. 

Ezscreen Helps Art Therapy Miracle

Five-year-old Deontay Isaac of Philadelphia, a patient at Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children,
does not need words to tell her story. The artwork-lined walls of her hospital say it all.


The breakthrough came with the arrival of a printer and an Ezscreen® RxKiosk® “All-in-One” Touchscreen PC donated by the Katherine Townsend Terral-Jessica Shelby Ferris endowment. This fund supports early intervention and art therapy in Batson Hospital. The computer is operated by touching its screen, so it could be controlled with a mouthstick which meant that Deontay could run the computer independently.


For further reading click on this link, Ezscreen Touchscreen Systems

Art therapy research

Art Therapy: Using the Creative Process for Healing and Hope Among African American Older Adults

This article provides an introduction to the field of art therapy and the potential it can offer to address the emotional needs of the frail elderly. Two case studies are discussed, and examples of artwork are provided. The case studies and artwork were created under the guidance of an art therapist at a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) site in an urban African American community. This article explores how art making addresses the specific developmental tasks of the elderly in a culturally competent manner. Included are practical considerations in the choice of art media and directives for working with elderly clients, as well as resources for further information on the use of art in therapy.